7 months old

Posted a little late, but still cute :)

Poll

Poll
Originally uploaded by trtlgrl
Turtle or Dinosaur??

Owen's grandmother send Hazel this sweater. I think it looks dinosaurish and I'm sure she thought it was a turtle.

Learning to Crawl

Hazel is trying so hard to crawl!!  She is able to push up on her knees and rock back and forth.  She can also crawl backwards and scoot around on her tummy.  It wont be long now!!

Vanna Overload

What can I say??? It's hard to pass up a sale on yarn!!

It started last week when I bought a couple of colors to crochet a TMNT for my cousin (incidentally, he asked for it last year...). Then I needed to get one more color for the body and all of a sudden all this Vanna's Choice jumped into my basket!! Really, what I did here was plan ahead for some projects that I want to make out of the Itty Bitty Toys book that I'm getting. I want to make the turtle/frog toy and the dress up dolly. Also, after working with the yarn I've decided that I like it a whole lot better for making amigurumi than Red Heart. So, I stocked up on different colors since it was on sale.

Yarn Wreath

I was inspired by Starbucks' decorations 2 Christmases ago. I've been wanting to make one for myself (since my local SB was stingy and would not sell their decorations after Christmas grr).

To make one for yourself you'll need:

plastic ornaments
yarn (I used scrap yarn and red heart)
wreath form
floral wire
more hot glue than you think you'll need ;)

I used hot glue to secure the yarn onto an ornament and just wound the yarn around until you could no longer see the ornament underneath. Using floral wire I secured the ornaments onto the form in a random order. I filled in the holes with smaller ornaments and when I had it looking the way I wanted, I just hot glued everything! Each place where an ornament was touching I hot glued. Then I hot glued the back to make sure they wouldn't fall off, and to cover the sharp ends of the wire.

I have a bow for this, but I haven't decided if I want to use it or not.

I just think this wreath is so festive! I kind of want to make more for the other seasons!

NM and HK

NM and HK
Originally uploaded by trtlgrl
My two favorite things represented as party plates. Oh how would I choose?

Whole Bowl

One of our favorite Portland food carts is The Whole Bowl (WB), we like the one on 11th & NW Glisan. I discovered WB on Stumptown Vegans and Owen went to check it out, then he raved about it so much, I had to go check it out too! There were a times when I would go downtown a couple days in a row just to get a WB fix! Then there would be times when I would crave WB, but they were closed, so, we started to make it ourselves! Our version is similar to WB, but is obviously not quite the same since we don't know the actual ingredients of the Tali Sauce (which is what makes WB so great!), but it is much cheaper to make it at home.

Our version of Whole Bowl (for 2 people):

1 bag of Trader Joes microwave Organic Brown Rice
1 can of beans, drained (we like black or white)
Tali Sauce (see below)
grated cheddar cheese
1 small can of sliced olives, drained
bunch of green onions (use white and green parts), chopped
La Victoria medium red taco sauce
plain non-fat yogurt or sour cream
1 avocado, sliced or cubed
cilantro
Sunflower seeds (optional)

Our Tali Sauce:
equal parts of at least 2 Tablespoons:
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice (we use the Minute Maid found in the frozen section)
French's Yellow Mustard
1 clove of garlic (we use a garlic press)
Black Pepper, to taste


Here is how we put it all together.

I use one bowl and mix up the tali sauce, then I add the microwaved brown rice and stir until coated. Portion out half of the rice into a 2nd bowl, then add microwaved beans between the two bowls. Grate cheese over this bean/rice mixture so that it can melt. Then top your bowls with the olives and green onions, add some red taco sauce, sliced avocado, a dollup of the yogurt (or sour cream) and sprinkle the cilantro on top. You may also add the sunflower seads for crunch!

Eat it with a spoon and enjoy!